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From the transcribed records of the Massachusetts Supreme Court of Judicature:

"Jeffrey a Negro Man of Mendon in the County of Worcester Labourer & Servant to Thomas Sandford of Mendon aforesd yeoman, being indicted by the grand inquest for the body of the County of Worcester, for that he on the twelfth of this instant September last at Mendon aforesaid, not having the fear of God before his eyes, but being moved and instigated by the Devil and of his malice forethought with force & arms an assault made on Tabitha Sandford then wife of the said Thomas & mistress of the said Jeffry (in the peace of God & the King then being) and with an iron hatchet ( of the value of twelve pence) which he the said Jeffrey held in his right hand willfully maliciously & feloniously struck the said Tabitha upon the right side of her neck near her head whereby her neckbone was cut off, and also struck her upon her left cheek and on her neck near her right shoulder, and her thereby mortally wounded, so that the said Tabitha by reason of the said wounds & mortal strokes given her by the said Jeffry, then & there instantly died, and so the jurors aforesd upn their oaths say that the said Jeffry did then & there of his malice forethought kill & mirther the said Tabitha contrary to the peace of our sovereign Lord the King his Crown & Dignity - Upon this indictmt the said Jeffry was brot to the bar & arraigned and on his arraignment pleaded guilty, whereupon the attourney for our Lord the King moved the court that sentence of death might be pronounced upon the criminal pursuant to law, and the said Jeffry being again brot & set to the bar, sentence of death was pronounced upon him by the honoble Paul Dudley, Esq., in the usual form. Ordered that said sentence be put in execution on Thursday the seventeenth day of October next between the hours of twelve and four of the clock in the daytime." (fn: "Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court (Suffolk County), court records 1740-1745," familysearch.org, film 7942984, images of Superior Court of Judicature vol. 1740-1745, image 644 of p. 218b.)
excerpt of a new article in the Boston Post Boy and Boston News-Letter: "It seems this Negro had before, upon some Disgust, gave out threatning Words; and seeing his Mistress walking in the Entry of the House, just about the Dusk of the Evening, he went in the Yard took up a Htchet and came in when her Back was towards him; as he advanced, she hearing somebody behind her, look'd about, at which Instant he struck her in the Face with the Edge of the Hatchet, and cut down her Nose, Cheek and Jaw, quite into her Tongue, and then repeating the Stroke, cut into her Neck thro' the main Sinews into the Bone, and then with a third Blow cut her into her Shoulder." "hearing the Noise [Thomas] came to see the Occasion, when the Negro threatned, that if he came near he would serve him as he had done his Mistress; however he ventur'd, seiz'd the Hatchet and took it from him, whereupon the Negro escap'd;--But soon after he stole a Cag of Rum from one of the Neighbours, with which he so intoxicated himself that he went about acting like a distracted Fellow, upon which he was seiz'd last Lord's Day," he was jailed "as is a Negro Woman, who 'tis tho't might be an Adviser and Abettor in this Murder." "his Trial will no doubt soon come on, and he receive the PUnishment which he justly deserves." Bost News-Letter, 10/24: "The Negro Fellow who lately barbarously murder'd his mistress at Mendon was executed at Worcester last week: his body was given to the surgeons to be dissected."
     Other versions of this story - oral history that can't be confirmed and published in , are that Tabitha was coming up from the cellar with cheeses when she was attacked, and Jeffrey, whom the oral history calls "Jeffs," was watching the funeral from up in a tree and was caught when he came down. It's likely the murder was subject to local tale-telling, with elaborations and fabrications. This book also says the Sanford house was southeast of the Thurber house on Providence Street, which still stands, in a field later owned by the Wilcox family. This would appear to put it out of the bounds of the property description, north of what is now Hartford Avenue.





vital records sources:

1 1.

all text and photographs © 1998-2021 by Doug Sinclair unless where otherwise noted